


Safety First

by Haicrescendo



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, She Doesn’t Even Go Here, and replacing her as zuko’s baby sister, azula can go right to the naughty step, give the child a better sibling, local earthbender takes new job as zuko’s security blanket, only ship here is toph x critical thinking skills, oops it’s definitely child abuse, real all tho toph is this close to firing azula, she’s not even in this, toph beifong’s magical nap lap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:53:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21990778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haicrescendo/pseuds/Haicrescendo
Summary: Zuko’s used to feeling unsafe. Zuko is also used to sleeping like shit. Somehow, he’s never considered that these things are connected.Or,Zuko figures out where he stands with Toph and almost immediately falls asleep on her.
Relationships: Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 456
Kudos: 11151
Collections: A:tla, Best of: Avatar The Last Airbender, Gammily’s Bookshelf, Good_or_Decent_Zuko_With_a_dash_of_Iroh_Azula_Gaang, Quality Fics, RaeLynn's Epic Rec List, avatar unfinished fics, best of avatar, escapism (to forget that the world is a burning hellscape), oh YES, toph stan library, zuko best boi





	Safety First

**Author's Note:**

> This is short, sweet, and soft, and I 100% needed to write it. 
> 
> If you liked it, please leave a comment! I always try and reply to all of them and feedback gives me life. As always, if you want to come ramble at me on tumblr, you can find me @sword-and-stars.

* * *

See, here’s the thing about being blind, Toph learns. 

Somehow (and she doesn’t know how it happens, but it  _ does _ ), she manages to see Zuko more honestly than any of her friends can. For all the good their eyes do, it’s pretty clear that being able to see him is blinding in itself.

Sparky’s got  _ great _ stance and a strong, unshakeable root pretty much all of the time, and that’s about all he’s got. Without that good stance? Sparky would definitely probably be a puddle on the ground. Most of the time his heart is going fast enough that Toph thinks he’s about to crawl out of his skin or have a nervous breakdown at any given point in time. She doesn’t think she’s ever felt a drop of calm in him.

Zuko is a buzz of nervous panicky vibration all the time, and Toph wonders, sometimes, how terror manages to become somebody’s normal.

That he’s scared all the damned time is what’s clear to her and less so to Aang and the rest of them. Toph knows what fear feels like and she can pick it out in others, and Zuko’s fear is so potent and constant that it’s a distraction, like somebody waving their hands in the air and screaming  _ look at me, look at me _ . 

He also sleeps like total garbage, too, judging from the way he behaves in the morning. Getting up at sunrise is a firebender thing, he explains when she asks why he doesn’t just stay in bed, voice thick and exhausted and  _ done _ . Toph makes a face.

Fire’s dangerous as hell; how’s firebending while sleep deprived supposed to set a good example?

Zuko’s heartbeat slows and settles in amusement, just a bit, at her consternation.

It’s been a long, long time since he’s had the luxury of being able to care about it.

That doesn’t sound like it feels very good, Toph mumbles at him eventually. When she’s overtired the earth gets  _ slow _ , and everything she bends is bigger and harder and messier than she means it to be. How fucking  _ careful _ does Zuko have to be,  _ all the time _ , to do as well as he does?

The boy makes a quiet, low sound that’s trying to be a laugh but sounds more like he’s about to start crying instead.

_It_ _feels_ _awful_ is all he manages to say before Katara comes with breakfast, and his heart starts screaming for help once again.

Toph almost hadn’t noticed when it had slowed to something almost close to normal.

* * *

Sparky’s a little bit better after he and Aang take their field trip.

Not great but having someone other than her who doesn’t seem to hate his guts is good for him. He still doesn’t sleep for shit but at least his bending is back up to snuff.

Toph still finds him, almost every morning, sitting by the campfire and digging the heels of his hands into his eyes.

“I’m blind and even I can see that you look like garbage,” Toph tells him flatly.

Zuko gives a tired, whuffing laugh that makes his body droop, but says nothing.

Toph sits down next to him and reaches out to grab his hand. He nearly jerks it away until he realizes that all she intends to do is hold. Having a physical connection to him makes his reactions  _ stronger _ , like when all the old guys use a magnifying glass to read the tiny print on scrolls. She can read him well enough without, but it helps.

Zuko doesn’t ask what she’s doing and doesn’t pull himself away, either. She wants to know when the last time someone touched him in kindness because nobody should have to do  _ deep breathing _ when somebody wants to hold their hand.

“I’m not gonna _hurt_ _you_ , you know,” she tells him.

“I know,” he says.

Zuko doesn’t know, but that’s okay. Just like everything else, he’ll just have to learn, just like the rest of them.

Toph lets the subject drop but keeps his hand. It’s big and long-fingered and calloused and warm the way strong firebenders always are. For a long, long while it stays limp in her hold, like he’s afraid to even move.

And then after what feels like forever, Zuko’s fingers curl around hers and squeeze very, very gently, like he’s afraid he’s going to break her. Normally shit like that would piss her off but just this once and just for him, Toph lets it go. He doesn’t  _ know _ and he can’t help it, so she forgives him his delicacy.

Toph starts talking at him to distract him, dumb and meaningless things like what Appa eats for breakfast and how many mangoes Momo can stuff in his mouth at once (four, according to Sokka) and Zuko’s rabbit-mouse pulse thrumming under her fingers slows and calms.

And then, like a creek opening straight into the sea, Zuko slumps sideways and sags against her, and Toph’s about to be real worried and start hollering for Katara regardless of how much she hates his guts—

The dude is asleep.

Zuko ( _ Zuko _ ) is straight up passed out on her shoulder and Toph wants to start laughing, but not if it wakes him up. She shifts and scoots enough that she can maneuver his head into her lap and Zuko doesn’t so much as stir. 

“Holy shit, Sparky,” she whispers, “What the  _ fuck _ .”

“What the  _ fuck _ ?” 

Toph’s so distracted that she doesn’t notice that Sokka’s manages to sneak up, Katara in tow. She can already feel Sugar Queen gearing up to say something, probably harsh enough and loud enough that Zuko will never feel safe enough to do this again.

“Wake him up and you’re  _ all  _ getting some of Aang’s earthbending training,” she warns, voice quiet but  _ hard _ , and gives Zuko’s head an awkward, protective pat. His hair is soft and she does it again because she can. Zuko gives a quiet little noise and curls in a little closer, and Toph suddenly understands the stories told about tamed saber-wolves. 

Zuko might be a mess but he’s a dangerous mess, and there’s something powerful and almost heady about somehow being the person he’s chosen to feel safe with. Because that’s all that this can be, right?

He doesn’t sleep well because he doesn’t feel safe, and he’s sleeping by Toph because somehow she’s managed to make him feel like he can, but she knows that if he gets woken up to being teased and made fun of,  _ that’s it _ . It’ll never happen again.

Toph glares until Katara lets out an annoyed, huffy breath but starts the process of breakfast anyway. Sokka flops down on Toph’s other side and stretches his arms over his head until something pops. She can tell that he’s staring.

“Hey, Snoozles?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s Zuko look like?” Not that it really matters, in the scheme of things, but Toph wants to know anyway, if only to know. 

“Like an asshole.”

“ _ Sokka. _ ”

“He’s got black hair, he’s wearing red, he’s—“

“Not like that.” Toph’s not sure how to phrase what she wants to know, but tries anyway. “What’s...what’s he  _ look _ like? You know, like his face. Does he look, like…happy?”

Sokka goes quiet for a good while and just watches, considering.

“He looks  _ tired _ . Really tired. He’s always got this salty, constipated look on his face but that might be the scar.”

“Scar?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sokka says easily, as if it should be obvious to her, “He’s got this huge burn scar on his eye, like somebody put their fist into his face. It’s pretty gnarly; makes him look real scary.” Sokka talks like it’s no big deal but Toph knows better.

Zuko is the  _ Fire Nation Crown Prince _ . 

There are lots of Earth Kings but there’s only one Fire Lord, and Ozai only has two kids. 

Toph’s been kept sheltered but she’s not  _ stupid _ . There aren’t a whole lot of people who could get away with putting a mark on someone like that, and she remembers, suddenly, a tasteless joke someone told at a dinner party a few years back while deep in their cups, about how maybe the Fire Lord had finally done something right to start firing on his own folks.

That very, very unfunny joke suddenly makes a lot more sense and somehow gets even more unfunny, and Toph feels sick to her stomach.

“Are you okay?”

Toph is not okay.

Zuko’s  _ dad _ did that to him, and a  _ lot _ of people laugh about it like it’s some kind of joke. Toph wants to fight somebody.

“Just...had a thought,” she mumbles, rubs Zuko’s unfairly soft hair to try and feel better.

“Doesn’t look like a good one.”

“No,” she says, “No. It’s not a good one at all.”

Breakfast doesn’t even sound good anymore, but Aang’s startled flailing when he finally drags himself out of his bedroll and sees his firebending teacher asleep in Toph’s lap lightens her mood enough that Katara’s porridge tastes like rice instead of sand.

Zuko sleeps straight through breakfast, somehow, and with a lack of options that don’t involve shoving him off, Toph manages a mid morning nap of her own with a conveniently formed boulder.

When she wakes, he’s gone but hasn’t been for long, because the dirt where he’d sat hasn’t yet been warmed by the sun. 

She can hear him, though, running through cold katas with Aang, and she can feel his forms through the ground. He feels  _ better _ than before, sharp and fluid and bright and  _ strong.  _

If a decent nap or two is all it takes to get him back up to par?

What’s some space on her lap between friends?

* * *

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Safety First](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27129740) by [steepedinwords](https://archiveofourown.org/users/steepedinwords/pseuds/steepedinwords)




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